Epinephelus marginatus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dusky grouper | ||||||||||||||
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| Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834) |
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Epinephelus guaza (Jordan & Evermann, 1896) |
The Dusky Grouper (Epinephelus marginatus) is the best known grouper of the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa coast. It is said to have the best taste of all Mediterranean fishes.
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[edit] Morphology
The Dusky Grouper has a big body with a big mouth. One long dorsal fin and a rounded tail. Its color varies from brown to green depending on the season and the age. It is green during its juvenile phase. The adult is upper brown with yellow spots and lower yellow. On the Operculum has three spines.
[edit] Habitat
The dusky grouper is a solitary fish. It likes to live alone in rocks, at depths from the coast to 300 meters, but it's rare to find it below 60 meters. It has a barometric distribution, were the younger specimens are found near the cost and the older ones at the depths.
He normally have one cave considered as home and several other caves as terporally huts. His home as a minimum of two exits, and a size slightly bigger that the grouper, so no bigger animal can enter in. In case of bite or force to extract him, he opens his mouth, operculum and spines to block himselft inside the cave.
It can be found at the mediterranian, the African west coast and the coast of Brazil. It is rare at the western Indian ocean, Uruguay, Argentina, north of France and British Islands.
[edit] Reproduction
It is a protogynous hermaphrodite, i.e. the young are predominantly female but transform into males as they grow larger. The reproduction normally takes place between the summer months.
[edit] Nutrition
It feed mainly on other fish, crabs and octopus. It is very greedy and one of the major predators in the Mediterranean sea.
[edit] Fishing
In some countries the dusky grouper is considered a delicacy. Refering to its preference among restaurant guests, the Spanish say 'De la mar el mero y de la tierra el carnero' (From the sea the dusky grouper, from the land the lamb).
[edit] Size
It normally lengths between 50 and 100 cm, and between 3 to 10 Kg. But its not rare to find exemplars of more than 40 Kg. It can grow up to 150 centimeters in length and 60 kilograms in weight.
[edit] References
- "Epinephelus Marginatus". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. July 2007 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2007.
